Turkish opposition parties have raised personal data protection and trade secret concerns after Turkey’s parliament passed a law giving wider powers to the country’s competition authority. Prior to the voting through of the law, some of Turkey’s biggest businesses warned there was a risk it would spook investors.

A section of the legislation amending the competition law allows the competition authority to obtain copies or physical examples of books, data and documents from institutions during an inspection. Opposition lawmakers said the provision does not come with measures that would protect personal data and trade secrets. More guarantees were needed in these areas given the “extensive authority” granted to the competition authority, they said.

According to an explanation of the law, the scope of the inspection authority, “vital for revealing cartels”, has been clarified. The law is also said to deliver a clarification of a self-evaluation method and introduce a new test to evaluate effective competition.

The ruling AKP party said the changes were aimed at bringing the competition law up to European Union standards.

But the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD), which includes Turkey’s largest companies in its ranks, said in a letter to lawmakers earlier this month that giving the competition authority such far-reaching oversight could create serious problems, especially in sectors where data security was increasingly important.

Deter foreign investors

The law could lower motivation for new investment and deter foreign investors and their industrial partners from growing their businesses in Turkey, TUSIAD advised. Making copies of company data would remove commercial secrets from the control of enterprises and thus amounted to a huge commercial risk, it added.

In the debate before the vote on the law, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said the amendment should be accompanied by severe penalties for persons who copy documents and data and pass it on to other institutions or persons.

The competition authority is now also empowered to make images of personal mobile phones and computers of company employees, administrators and partners. “No company will feel safe… and no foreign company will invest in Turkey,” the CHP's Industry Commission spokesman Tahsin Tarhan said before the legislation was passed.

The politician behind the proposal is the AKP’s Bulent Tifenkci. He told local media that the legislation presented no threat to privacy protection and that there were already criminal penalties in place for exposing commercial secrets.